The Use of Internet by Non-Profit Organizations to Tell Human Stories

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AbstractThis research paper explores the utilization of the internet by non-profit organizations to frame their mandate by using personal stories to shoe the acts of charity and the good work conducted by the organization. 26 non-profits in health charities were used as samples to develop 344 good stories which were coded. Particularly, the study examined the prevalence and prominence of good works on the websites of the non-profit organizations and how these organizations employed other elements including call-to-action, multimedia, and opportunities for the person interacting with the website to participate. The findings reveal that health charity organizations do use their websites to tell stories that illustrate the good work of the organization. Worth noting, there seems to be a great discrepancy in how these organizations tell these stories. Noteworthy, not many organizational websites depicted model examples in prevalence, prominence, and synergy of stories of the great work they do, and most of them failed to utilize their websites as mediums to the maximum potential.

Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u Abstract PAGEREF _Toc68364985 h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc68364986 h 4Statement of Problem PAGEREF _Toc68364987 h 6Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc68364988 h 8Purpose of Study PAGEREF _Toc68364989 h 8Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc68364990 h 9Early Theories in Relation to the Internet. PAGEREF _Toc68364991 h 9Is the Internet Living up to Its Potential? PAGEREF _Toc68364992 h 9Limitations of Previous Research PAGEREF _Toc68364993 h 10Methodology PAGEREF _Toc68364994 h 10Findings and Discussions PAGEREF _Toc68364995 h 12Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc68364996 h 14Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc68364997 h 14References PAGEREF _Toc68364998 h 15

Part AIntroductionThe fundamental goal of non-profits organizations is using acts of charity to improve society. In the 21st century, there is limitless potential in how citizens can contribute to social change beings that communities are evolving faster than before. The non-profit sector is going through unprecedented growth with approximately 1.4 million non-profit organizations existing in the United States and as a result, society is changing for the better (Winand, Scheerder, Vos, & Zintz, 2016). Countless non-governmental organizations have devoted themselves to almost every cause imaginable and have been supported by the support and philanthropic giving of Americans. From improving education for disadvantaged communities to promoting art, from prevailing over poverty to cleaning the environment, the non-profit sector in the U.S provides a diverse and impressive range of programs that help in improving society. The IRS employs core code systems to categorize non-profit charities for purposes of tax exemption. While there are over 26 categories of non-profits, human service organizations comprise a majority type of non-profit organizations accounting for 35% of the organizations. Organizations dealing with education account for 18% of total organizations. Those dealing in healthcare, art, culture, humanities, societal, and public benefit follow closely. Public benefit and human services account for the biggest portion of charities because they serve as ‘cathall categories meaning that they represent a wide array of organizational missions.

The Internet

In the 1990s, Vice President Al Gore popularized the term ‘information superhighway to mean the future of the internet. Since then how the internet exploded is a medium that stands to defy communication advancement in history. A report by the U.S Department of Commerce notes that the rate at which the internet was adopted eclipses all previous forms of technologies; radio took 38 years before reaching 50 million people, TV took 13 years to attain the same benchmark and the internet took only four (4) years to cross that line. The internet has advanced over time and this has led to improved communication. For instance, use of the email for communication is one component that is used by almost all internet users. A recent article by USA Today reported that approximately 87 billion emails are sent on a daily basis (Maier, Meyer, & Steinbereithner, 2016). A fact that is truly astonishing. Emails have proved helpful for many purposes including communicating with family, friends, in businesses and email has proved a significant functionality that has accelerated internet use. Social networking fosters communication and similarly, websites also facilitate two-way communication between audiences and the internet. Compared to other forms of media, the internet is the most dynamic. It is constantly evolving and new facets keep emerging. If non-profit charities want to engage with the audience in the current era, they must employ the ever dynamic and changing communication strategies and tactics. It should be noted that most internet users find it as a useful source of entertainment and information, completely outranking other mediums such as television which is the most common medium of communication. As such, there is a need for non-profits to change their communication strategies so that they employ this medium.

Statement of ProblemHow information technology is employed by the non-profits sector has changed immensely and today almost all have embraced web presence. A survey conducted by Princeton Research Associates in 2001 focusing on 200 human service organizations to examine the prominence of information technology found that most of the organizational executives maintained that adopting information technology not only helped in improving efficiency but also improving their profile and presence within communities and boost communication among staff members and their constituents (Ragsdell, Rathi, Given, & Forcier, 2016). Further, it was found that big and established organizations took up forms of information technology compared to their smaller counterparts. Organizations with web presence noted that their websites came in handy in explaining their missions and in executing their missions and programs. Some of the reasons cited by organizations for not having websites were cost-related, lack of staff, while others said they had more important priorities hence they did not need one.

The adoption of information technology has given rise to a new world of possibility particularly for the non-profit sector. One of the major incentives of this is that it grants the organization a platform to carry out online fundraising. Following the emergence of the e-commerce functionality businesses were allowed to sell services and products using the internet and as such better placed to fundraise online. With the use of secure internet servers, financial transactions are completed online via credit card or electronic transfer. Recent studies by the Philanthropic Giving Index Survey show that non-profits have recently become successful at online donations with 34.4% of not-for-profit organizations being successful at internet fundraising with the average donation being 150 dollars (Shapiro & Oystrick, 2018).

This research paper is focused primarily on the non-profit organizations that employ the internet and particularly their websites to present stories of the people they help. In America, the scope and number of beneficiaries that have benefited from the good deeds of public charities translate into millions. They may include refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, battered women, pediatric cancer patients, impoverished farmers among others. Non-profits traditionally used personal testimonials to publicize the organization’s mission. Media platforms such as direct mail letters feature photos and stories of beneficiaries moreso, in Africa benefiting from American donations. Furthermore, annual reports with personal testimonials from beneficiaries were also employed. Public relations officers used interviewed beneficiaries for features in television shows and news outlets to enrich organizational support. Today, with the increased uptake of the internet, organizations are incorporating personal testimonials in their websites. Taking the example of CARE International, which is a leading global humanitarian organization in fighting poverty, if a visitor interacts with their website, they immediately get a glimpse of how the lives of numerous girls and women have benefitted from CARE’s programs that fight poverty. One notices that CARE includes links to personal testimonials of women from around the world on the main page. CARE web page features over a dozen anecdotes that depict the impact of the organization on women and children from a global perspective. Further, the website has photo galleries, Flash representations, and short text explanations that depict how the programs benefit pregnant women and malnourished women in places like Malawi, educational initiatives in Cambodia, and refugees in Darfur. In essence, CARE. Org presents its audiences with an opportunity to get to know about their programs by showing rather than telling them the significance of the impact of poverty reduction on a global scale.

Research QuestionsResearch Question 1: Do non-profits only use organization websites to primarily tell stories about the good deeds of the organization?

Research Question 2: To what degree do is multimedia employed by non-profit organizations on their website to tell good stories about the work of the organization?

Purpose of StudyNon-profit organizations need to develop ways to communicate with the members of the public regarding their organizational program, missions, philanthropy, and funding gaps. Given the funding and tight budgets that constrain them, the Internet has the potential of communicating this information to the public with ease. This research assesses how non-profit organizations use the internet as a medium to cultivate relationships with their stakeholders. Particularly it dwells on how non-profits use websites to predominantly feature stories that paint a good picture of the organization including cats of charity and good deeds. However, the variables are in the prominence of these stories of good works, the framing of the story, and the synergy of these stories of good needs with the call to action. This study assesses the way non-profit use the world wide web to bring to the spotlight their philanthropy, an aspect of public relations that is overlooked while studying charity organizations and their uptake of internet technology. Further, the context assesses the way non-profits frame themselves; they make their causes a bit prominent in the way they showcase success stories of their good deeds to stakeholders using the World Wide Web. Non-profit organizations measure their success not by the money in their bank accounts but by the amount of good they have performed in society.

Section BLiterature ReviewEarly Theories in Relation to the Internet.According to Ahmed, (2017), Marshall McLuhan first used the notion ‘the medium is the message’ to imply that the medium is the most important aspect of communication and not the content. Notably, this aspect also applies to the internet even though initially the theory only applied to older electronic media such as television. McLuhan used the theory to explain that electronic media would transform the world into a global village (Algharabat et.al 2018). True to his word, today people are employing electronic media to communicate across the globe. The notion he predicted of a global village has become a reality.

Is the Internet Living up to Its Potential?Many scholars and technology gurus have regarded the internet as a medium with the capacity to make an important impact on how the world communicates (Bake & Zöhrer, 2017). However some scholars have raised questions about the effectiveness of the internet and if it lives up to its potential (Del Mar Galvez-Rodriguez, et. al 2016). Linda Jean Kenix carried out an analysis on the websites of 70 non-profit organizations. Her aim was to explore how practical the application of the Utopian belief that held that the internet is a tool used to democratize interactive capabilities. Kenix developed four ways to describe the democratic, utopian, and egalitarian ideals of the internet. The first category was the deliberative public sphere which engages members of the public in conversations (Bauer, et. al 2016). . The second one is an opportunity for activism which facilitates volunteer opportunities. The third one is space for marginalized voices and the fourth is instantaneous and interconnected information such as online employment information, site indexes, items for sloe, advertising revenue, and frequently asked questions (Erete, et.al 2016).

Limitations of Previous ResearchCarmichael, & McDonough, (2019) note that scholars in communication have carried out extensive research regarding the effectiveness of online communications; however, most of them have always focused on the for-profit sector. Worth noting, although the research has proved useful in understanding internet use and its functions, studies relating to business communications and websites cannot be generalized in the non-profit sector. Communication researchers have started studying internet use as related to non-profits to fill the gap (Gratton, 2018). Further, previous studies were focused on the concept of credibility and intractability of websites. Presently, the studies conducted are different from the ones done in the past in that they assess one notion of websites of non-profits—stories of goof works (Laureano, et. al 2018). Without a doubt, acts of charity and good works form the lifeblood of any organization. Improving society is the reason why non-profits exist hence researchers in communication need to differentiate how organizations communicate their messages to members of the public (Matthews, et. al 2017). There is a need for current research to study the way non-profits use their websites to examine how to fulfill their missions towards society.

MethodologyThe study employed the use of Philanthropy 400 rankings for 2006 as a sampling study. It uses financial data collected for non-profits to know the top 400 that contribute mot money annually. The Philanthropy 400 is categorized according to 17 non-profits types including public broadcasting and international aid organizations. The majority of the 17 subsectors were selected appropriately for use in this study. For instance, 117 universities and colleges were not eligible samples because their websites fail to fulfill the purposes of audiences that do not relate to the good deeds of the organization. Further, other subsectors did not qualify as they were not ideal. They included museums, hospitals, libraries, and public broadcast organizations. Health samples containing health charities were selected for the study. Particularly the selected health non-profits whose mission is to help patients and loved ones in handling diseases, informing members of the public about health issues, and conducting research for cures. The study was limited to one subsector which eliminated extraneous variables which could have altered the results if it were a multi-sector study.

There were 25 organizations in the subsector of health charities. Coders included one website for an additional organization making the final sample size 26. The primary unit of analysis was the non-profit’s home page while the secondary unit of analysis was the page that had the personal story. The stories that were coded were the ones that were found within the first three layers. The number of clicks from the homepage’s location was used to measure prominence and to measure how prominent the stories were, a secondary measure was used. The internet browser window was employed at all times and stories were code in four sizes; more than a page, half a page, quarter a page, and less than a quarter page. The term multimedia was described as including video, color photography, black-and-white photography, audio, and flash presentations. Perspective was determined in personal stories using the use of the first or third person. The focus of each story was examined using text and classified according to facts, statistics, event-oriented, and human interest.

Findings and DiscussionsThis research paper was exploratory. The study analyzed websites of 26 organizations in the healthcare sector and 344 stores of good deeds located within two clicks from the homepage. The data was collected and coded before being analyzed statistically.

No. of clicks Frequency Percent Cumulative Frequency Cumulative Percent

1 12 46.15 12 45.15

2 8 30.77 20 76.92

No personal stories found 6 23.08 26 100

Total 26 100 Table 1: Website sample location of the stories that are most prominent

From the 20 websites that were assessed, most of them placed prominent stories one click from the homepage, accounting for 46.15% or 12 organizations. The remaining 30.77% placed their prominent stories within two clicks from the home page. 23.08% were not coded they did not have personal stories was because their websites did not have any stories of their good deeds or they were found more than two clicks from the homepage.

Size of Story Page Frequency Percent Cumulative Frequency Cumulative Percent

Below ¼ page 10 2.91 10 2.91

¼ page 31 9.01 41 11.92

½ page 40 11.63 81 23.55

Above ½ page 263 76.45 344 100.00

Total 344 100 Table 2: The Prominence of Personal Stories on Organizational Web Page

About how prominent each story on the web page majority of the stories employed over half of the browser window. They accounted for 76.45 percent of the stories. The stories that remained were displayed less prominently with 11.63% taking half a page, 2.91% taking a below a quarter a page, and 9.01% a quarter of the page.

Research question 1 sought to find out if the organizations use their websites to show stories about the acts of good work of the organization. The tables show that non-profits in the health sector show stories about the organizations prominently hence supporting the research question. In fact, most organizations placed personal stories on their web [ages and also placed them in locations that are easily accessible. Research question 2 aimed to find out if and how these organizations use multimedia to tell stories about the good works of the organization. From the findings, 88.77% of the stories had visual elements with 38.77% showing color photographs. 38.24 % used a pull quote with video clips and black and white photography accompanying 12 and 3 stories respectively.

Visual element Frequency Percent Cumulative Frequency Cumulative Percent

Color Photography 145 38.77 145 38.77

Black and white 13 3.48 158 42.25

Video clip 15 4.01 173 46.26

Audio Clip 2 0.53 175 46.79

Fresh Presentation 1 0.27 176 47.06

Pull Quote 143 38.24 319 85.30

Other 13 3.48 332 88.78

None 42 11.23 374 100

Total 374 100 ConclusionNon-profit organizations in the health sector use websites to show stories about their good deeds and acts of charity. There is a discrepancy in the way how these organizations showcase stories of their good work. A given number of organizations gives models examples of prominence, synergy, and prevalence with a call to action of the stories they post on their websites, however, most of these non-profits do not use the medium to its maximum capacity.

RecommendationsThe internet is still in its infancy as a medium, hence communication practitioners continue to encounter a steep learning curve. Despite this, the internet has expanded hence non-profit organizations must strive to keep up with the pace if they want it to continue being relevant. The only way for non-profits to elevate their mission’s salience is to elevate the prominence and prevalence of stories of good work on their websites, calls to action, using visual elements to accompany testimonial stories, and providing opportunities for reader engagement.

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